Jon Huntsman kills his presidential ambitions with one "crazy" tweet

And there goes any chences of winning a Republican primary.

Tweets Huntsman: "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

You're not crazy, Jon -- just the GOP. (By the way, the evolution thing is a reaction to the latest Rick Perry escapade.) I actually think Huntsman blew a massive opportunity here. I realize that running for president as an independent is usually seen as a fool's errand -- Ross Perot got a pretty amazing 19 percent in 1992, yet didn't win a single state, after all -- but 2012 could have been an exception.

There's a lot of moderate voters out there -- including sizable minorities within both parties as well as independents -- who don't want to vote for Obama but think the GOP front-runners are bat-guano crazy. The candidate that would appeal to these millions of unhappy voters would -- in my warped opinion, anyway -- be spmeone center-right on econmic issues, with some actual business experience, but center-left on social issues like climate change and gay rights. Huntsman mostly fits that bill (I think New York's Michael Bloomberg fits it better..if he wasn't so arrogant and annoying).

If Huntsman had started early in the game with an independent campaign, he might have pulled some moderate Republicans out of the primary vote and ensured the nomination of a right-wing extremist like Rick Perry or even Michele Bachmann. Do you think Huntsman could win a Huntsman-Bachmann-Obama election in 2012? I do. Instead, Huntsman is a GOP 1 percenter. Go figure.